hands and feet -Jon Kessler

[Title] hands and feet
[Artist] Jon Kessler
[Date] August 1 – October 19, 2002

Taking Hermès’ 2002 annual theme “The hand,” the artist Jon Kessler created a window full of playful spirit. Through his creativity, there appeared in Ginza a theater that can be enjoyed by adults and children alike.
The first surprising element of the window is the curtain that rises and falls with quick speed. This curtain, which is full of drapes, is made of nearly fifty scarves from the new 2002 Fall/Winter collection, “Sulfure & Presse-papiers II.” The two colors of orange and yellow green are sewn together alternately.
On the other side of the curtain is an objet resembling a mobile. The hands and feet attached to the tips were modeled after those of the artist and his daughter, which were created into mold. In the background of the small window, there is a photograph of the mold factory where the hands and feet were made. It is an old, atmospheric factory in the suburbs of New York. The photograph was taken by the artist himself.
Take a look at the women’s boots in the front right. Upon careful observation, one notices the shoelace moving. The shoelace moves irregularly and softly with a motor, and may seem to children like insect. What hangs on the mobile is mainly taken from the 2002 Fall/Winter collection. Appropriate for the mobile, for which balance is crucial, the work maintains an exquisite form.
As the curtain fully opens, the audience can see a mysterious and cool spectacle, where the products and silver art objects are perfectly matched inside the stage framed in matted orange and yellow green. Even after the brilliant curtain made of scarves has fallen, in our eyes shall remain the silver “hands” of the invisible helpers, supporting the protagonists, which are the products.

Jon Kessler
Born in New York in 1957, Jon Kessler is an artist and Chair of the Visual Arts Department of Columbia University’s School of the Arts. His works are found in the permanent collections of many museums including New York Museum of Modern Art and Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. In Japan, Kessler has held solo exhibitions in 1992 in Namba City Hall (Osaka) and Spiral Garden (Tokyo).

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